1. PORTRAYAL OF NURSING IN THE MEDIA
Allison Mentink, Christine Ostendorf, Jessica Gums
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

2. INTRODUCTION
We have all heard stories regarding nurses: killer nurses, incompetent nurses, poorly trained nurses and of course the entertainment media have their “naughty nurses”
Negative/derogatory portrayal of nursing in the media has become more prevalent over the past 50 years. This has heightened with more negative images in the past 20 years.
The medias portrayal of nurses is one of the most difficult to compete with
The issue of how nurses and nursing as a profession are portrayed in the media is affected by many different influences. Nurses in general do not like to be in the media. As stated in Silence to Voice Nurses encountered by the media seem terrified of talking about their work and expressing their opinions. From a professional standpoint nurses have been more focused on their profession and not justifying themselves to the media and those that have misconceptions of nurses.

3. Media Print ads Radio News coverage Books Internet Television Movies
Print news media sometimes portrays nurses as skilled professionals, but often reports only on nursing mistakes.
The media has portrayed nurses as meek handmaidens, love interests, bimbos and naughty nurses. The naughty nurse image has been used to sell alcohol, razor blades, cosmetics, shoes and milk.
Johnson & Johnson ad campaign to get people to enter nursing, but portrayed nurses as ‘angels’ not professionals

5. Wait! People Trust Nurses!
2008 Gallup poll ranked nurses #1 for honesty and ethics
Trust is not the same as respect!

6. Does it Matter? Nursing is an autonomous profession
TV, movies and news accounts frequently give credit for the work nurses do to physicians or hospitals
People are affected by what they see and hear – this is why companies and politicians spend millions of dollars on advertising
Entertainment education
In the 1950s and 1960s, the American Medical Association asserted control over network television shows, ensuring scripts included heroic physicians
Entertainment education – a way of informing the public about a social issue or concern by using popular social media like TV
Harvard and UCLA schools of public health
Hollywood Health and Society Project at USC sponsored by the CDC and the Writers Guild of America

7. Where are all the nurses?
In 2008, 39 of 43 major characters on the top 5 U.S. health related prime time TV shows were physicians. In reality, there were 3 million nurses and 700,000 physicians; a 4:1 ratio

8. REAL NURSES VS FICTIONAL NURSES
WHAT REAL NURSE DO
WHAT TV NURSES DO
Educate
Answer Phones
Patient Advocate
Follow Doctor Orders
Triage
Have Affairs with Doctors
Monitor Patients
Assist Doctors
Provide Emotional Support
Watch Doctors Save Lives
Perform Procedures
Save Lives

9. Do people really believe what they see?
2000 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed:
52% of people reported getting information they trust to be accurate from a prime time TV show
Greater than 25% said such shows are among their top 3 sources for health information
9 out of 10 regular viewers said they learned something about diseases from TV
Almost 50% took some action after watching the show
42% told someone the storyline
16% told someone to do something or did something themselves
9% visited a clinic or physician

10. How does the media currently view nurses?
From , NBC’s daytime soap opera Passion’s had an orangutan play the role of Precious – a private duty nurse.

11. EARLY IDEAS ABOUT NURSING
Angels of Mercy until end of WWII
1920’s to end of WWII – pragmatic, even heroic
A Farewell to Arms (1932)

12.
1930’s-1940’s – Dr. Kildare films introduced nurses as love interests
1940’s-1960’s – series of juvenile novels about Cherry Ames
Adventurous, bright, young nurse crime solver
1950’s-1960’s – AMA asserted control over network television
Heroic physician characters virtuous,
no mistakes

13.
: The Nurses series
1960’s brought the naughty nurse, balanced by the senior battle-ax
Quality of nursing portrayal decreased in both film and prime time television
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

14.
1960’s and 1970’s: increase in portrayal of explicit sexual activity
Catch 22 (1970)
M.A.S.H. (1972)
Kalischs of University of Michigan Nursing School published multiple studies in the 1980’s

15. 1980’s – 1990’s
Nurses were shown as peripheral assistants to dominant physicians
St. Elsewhere showed occasional formidable nurse character
China Beach lead character colleen McMurphy was competent, tough army nurse but did not generally display much skill

16. 1980’s – 1990’s
TV sitcom Nurses treated nurses with some respect
Nightingales featured sexy nursing students who spent so much time partially undressed that outraged nurses actually managed to chase the show off the air
ER 1994 One of the most influential health care shows in history. Fairly realistic scenes, some of the best depictions of nursing ever to appear on network TV, occasionally showed serious nursing skill and autonomy, but as a whole depicted nurses as the handmaiden, as a skilled physician assistant who must defer to him.

17. Present
Strong Medicine on Lifetime had a handsome, articulate nurse midwife Peter Riggs, but other nurses were mute handmaidens
2001-Present Scrubs, main nurse Carla Espinosa at times shows real skill, but also shows doctors starting iv’s and hanging medications and providing virtually all care
House stated nurses were invented to pick patients up when they fall and to get him coffee
Private Practice only has one nurse/receptionist character-male midwife student

19. How has the Media’s Portrayal Affected Nurses?
Nursing shortage
Prevented men from entering nursing
Reduced respect and trust in nursing
Reduced the patient population of nurse practitioners

20. What Can We Do?
Nurses must recognize that they have the power to change the profession
Project a professional image
Write letters to editors and producers
Hospital managers can promote nursing just like they do medicine
Media can consult with nurses
Hollywood can include characters to reflect real nursing work

21. “Most people know they can’t get into a hospital without a doctor
“Most people know they can’t get into a hospital without a doctor. What they don’t know is that they won’t get out of one – at least not alive – without a nurse.”
- Nursing Historian Joan Lynaugh

22. REFERENCES

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